Creating Headings to Add Structure

L = Links
I = Images
S = Structure (Heading Styles and Lists)
T = Table

Guidelines

Chunking material prevents cognitive overload, providing information in digestible pieces for your students. They will help your students better understand the main points of each section, help provide a cognitive schema for the information you're presenting, and allow your students to skim the page.

Different heading styles = different text sizes

The different heading style sizes help visual learners understand how the subtopics relate to the main topics, and with one another.

Heading 1 = Title of Canvas Page
Heading 2 is used for new independent, main topics
Heading 3, Heading 4, Heading 5, Heading 6 are used for subtopics

Take Video Quiz

Please watch this overview video about headings and take the required quiz to help us learn what other resources we can provide to support on this subject.

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5 Secs

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Applying List Styles for Organization

Lists neatly present related ideas and outlines steps in a process. They also capitalize on white space, which can help make your page visually appealing.

When to use a bullet list

If your items are a group of equivalent ideas or terms, and the order is not an essential aspect of the concept, use a bulleted list. Consider, for instance, the list of things every instructor can easily do to make sure content pages are accessible to everyone:

Chunk material into useable bits.
Use white space to prevent cognitive overload.
Use styles to tag headings for users with screen readers and provide visually organized pages.
Use bulleted and numbered lists to synthesize information.
Integrate meaningful hyperlinks into your text.
Ensure color contrast is optimized for the visually impaired.

When to use a numbered list

If your items are a sequence, steps to instructions, or an essential part of a whole (such as, "there are four things you need to know to complete this assignment"), use a numbered list. For instance, consider these sequenced instructions for creating a list:

Select the numbered list icon from the editing bar.
Enter the first step in your sequence, then select Return.
Enter the next step in your sequence, then select Return.
Continue entering steps until the instructions are completed.
De-select the numbered list icon in the editing bar. Your cursor will snap back to the left margin, ending your numbered list.